


She Named Her Mercy

by AvaChanel



Category: Teen Titans (Animated Series), Teen Titans (Comics), Teen Titans - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Drama, F/M, Happy Ending, Mild Smut, Romance, Whumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:46:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26823118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AvaChanel/pseuds/AvaChanel
Summary: Dick makes an impromptu, drunken confession to his friends during a boys night out, and like a domino effect, it winds up leading to more trouble than expected for the other Titans…Dick/Kory & BBRae.
Relationships: Dick Grayson/Koriand'r, Garfield Logan/Raven
Comments: 6
Kudos: 91





	She Named Her Mercy

_He feels good._

_No, he feels **right**. _

_In fact, she doesn't think she's ever wanted something — some **one** — more. _

_He moves inside her like he's always been the missing piece. They belong together, in every way, and she feels that in her bones. The way he completes her with every urgent thrust. How he fits her like a glove, like he was **made** for her. _

_Nothing else matters, just the two of them. Not how cold the tiles of the shower walls she's pushed back up against are, or how lukewarm the spray of water on her exposed skin is. She'll be sore in the morning, and no doubt there'll even be a few bruises along her thighs and hips where his fingers have pressed in. All along the curve of her back from repeatedly banging into the wall, and her breasts where his teeth and tongue are relentless and nipping, too. But these are the kind of markings that leave her in high spirits and entirely sated. She wears them proudly, a token of passion, visible memories of how she belongs to him, too. Her body knows the pain comes from pleasure. Carrying part of him inside of her wherever she goes, sticky, sweet, and warm, nestled between her thighs like a well-kept secret._

_Her sharp nails dig into the muscles of his back as he gasps hotly against her ear, his arms under her thighs where he hooks her legs around his trim waist. There's an erratic rhythm to the motion of his hips now when he drives them against hers, his biceps straining while he keeps her suspended in the air._

_Water droplets cling to her lashes when she squeezes her eyes shut, but all that matters is the pleasure mounting between her legs, the ache only satisfied with more and more of **him**. He consumes her like a fire, burning her up from the inside out. Her fingers grab and clump fistfuls of his wet hair, breathy moans crescendoing with the tempo of their writhing, wet bodies. _

_The little death, they called it. But in his arms, she could only ever feel **alive**. _

* * *

Dick Grayson stared into the campfire until it started to blind him, water blurring his gaze. The bright orange flame was the only source of light in the entire campsite. With the backdrop of night, it perplexed him how the fire only seemed to further pronounce the impenetrable darkness that surrounded them this deep in the woods.

He took a swig from the bottle of beer he'd been nursing most of the evening, the liquid having long since gone lukewarm and stale in the late summer heat. Taste didn't even matter anymore. Dick was just going through the motions of the evening, knowing he should pull his stare away from the fire before anyone grew too suspicious of his melancholy state and started asking questions.

But the heat from the fire was magnetic, the smoke and smell of burning cedar casting a sort of trance-like spell over the former boy wonder. He couldn't look away, lost in the ember, orange light reflecting in his blank eyes, the only hint of life. 

The fire — warm, alluring, safe — it was _her_ hair. The way it flickered and flared, a long, blazing trail fading into the starry night sky.

What was she thinking now?

Did she hate him?

He couldn't even blame her for it, if she did. In that moment, he hated himself, too.

The unpleasant memory pulled the corners of his mouth into a frown.

A hand waved before his eyes then, forcing Dick to blink as the flame before him became obscured. Just like that, the spell was broken and all the sights and sounds of the night crept back into full-swing. Dick had drowned them all out unknowingly, the noise having turned into a dull drizzle compared to the loud crackling of the fire. But his friends were still rambunctious, drunk, and having a howling good time whittling away the final days of summer.

And in fact, he was pretty sure Gar was _literally_ howling right at this moment, the uncanny sound eerily resembling a wolf's. And then they all burst out into delirious laughter when a _real_ wolf answered his call.

Roy was the one who had sat down next to Dick, the ginger archer obviously concerned for his friend's lack of interest in the festivities. Roy casually slipped the bottle out of Dick’s unassuming grip and popped open a fresh, cool bottle instead to replace it with. Dick let him do it, still staring at the fire eating away at the flint. 

"So. You wanna talk about it? Or are you gonna keep brooding all night instead?"

Dick shook his head, staring at the condensation running down the neck of the new bottle in his hands. "I'm not brooding," he protested.

Roy grinned his trademark smile. "You are. In fact, I think you'd probably make old daddy dearest proud with a pout like _that_."

Dick didn't say anything to the jibe. The fire illuminated the grass beneath his bare feet, the illusion that even the ground was aflame. It distracted him, briefly. Somewhere in the background, Wally, Vic, and Gar were shouting, whooping, and laughing drunkenly. Dick was so out of touch with his surroundings, so consumed with his own torturous thoughts, he couldn't tell which of his friends was doing what.

It came as no surprise that the comparison to Bruce unsettled his stomach, and he wasn't doing a good job of hiding the sourness it left in his mouth. The tease had touched on a nerve Roy had likely never intended, and Dick knew he ought to not take it out on his friend, nor rise to the bait, and yet... "I'm _nothing_ like him…," he barked through gritted teeth.

"Cheers to that!" Roy clinked his beer with Dick's before knocking back whatever was left of his own. "Now that we cleared that up, how about sharing with the class what's got you going all Batman on us?"

As if on queue for said storytime, the others rejoined them by the warm fire, taking a seat in a circle around the flame, still in high spirits and oblivious to Dick's darkening demeanour. Wally barley even made it into his chair, tripping and tumbling backwards when he tried to sit down. The commotion caused both Vic and Gar to pointedly laugh and snicker at his uncoordinated struggle. He scowled and flipped them both off when he sat up on his sore backside, but they ignored his insult.

Dick rubbed at his tired eyes, the heels of his palms coming away wet when he pressed too hard. He hadn't slept in over seventy-two hours, and with a growing sense of dread, he wondered if he truly _was_ becoming more like Bruce.

"I fucked up…," Dick confessed at last, cradling his face in his hands, unable to look at any of his friends. "I fucked up _badly_ …"

Swearing wasn't something Dick Grayson did often. It alarmed his teammates, who had all gone stone cold silent as soon as he had spoken, sobering up almost immediately at the uncharacteristic tremble in their leader's tone.

"I don't know what I'm gonna do…"

"Hey, it's okay, you're basically talking to the king of screw ups here. Tell us what's going on, maybe we can help." Roy reassured Dick by patting his back. Dick's shoulders shook and it was all he could do to hold back the tears at the memory of his last interaction with Starfire.

The way she'd looked at him, her heart breaking all over again. Tears he'd sworn she'd never shed again spilling down her cheeks in silent accusation.

"You don't get it...You guys _can't_ help me. No one can..."

"Try us," Victor offered, a small, kind smile on his lips. The smooth, silver surface of shiny metal forming most parts of his body was reflecting the fire, making it look like it was melting and warping it.

"Kory...she...I…"

"Oh my God, just spit it out already!" Wally groaned, earning an elbow in the ribs from Victor.

"She's pregnant."

Gar's jaw fell open, Roy's brows shot up to his hairline, Wally dropped his solo cup, and Victor blinked incredulously, struggling to process this new information.

For a moment, the camp grew uncomfortably silent, and the only noise came from the night critters of the forest, and the crackling fire before them.

And then Roy whistled low, busying himself with stoking the peetering flames with a stick while intentionally avoiding Richard’s curious glance.

“Well shit,” he started, “Maybe you finally got me beat there after all, Dickie boy.”

“I don’t think that’s helping, Roy,” Victor commented drily, eyes narrowed at the archer.

Wally scratched the back of his head. “Wait, am I missing something? Aren’t babies, y’know... _good_ news?”

“Dude, he’s having an _alien_ baby! As in, shooting lasers out of its eyes, and who can probably set fire to the entire planet with a _sneeze_!” exclaimed Gar.

“Says the guy banging Satan’s daughter,” mumbled Wally. He picked up his solo cup and noted its dry contents with a frown, oblivious to the menacing glare Gar fixed him with. “Hope _you’re_ at least using protection, Logan. Your girl will _literally_ give birth to a demonspawn otherwise.”

Gar’s face blanched and he stammered on the spot, not really knowing how to respond, his mouth opening and closing with no sound. Anger and confusion were both evident in the changeling’s features.

“Would you two shut up, please? Neither of you are helping the situation. Dick, is there anything we can do?” Victor was the only one with any sort of focus, which came as no surprise given his natural leadership qualities.

Everyone else went silent, their attention drawn back to Richard, who was still staring solemnly into the fire, as if willing it to jump up and devour him. “Build me a time machine, maybe?”

“For real? You wanna go back in time and remember to wear a condom?” Roy teased.

Dick rubbed the palm of his hand along his temple, trying to subdue the migraine coming on. “No. I want to go back in time and undo the shitty reaction I gave her when she told me.”

Gar winced. “That bad?”

Dick nodded once, gaze not leaving the fire, but seeing her instead. He could still visualize the way her bottom lip had quivered, how she’d hugged her torso in a desperate attempt to keep her hands from reaching for him when she needed him most.

Meanwhile, all Dick had done was stand there, guffawing like an idiot, staring at her like he couldn’t believe it, like he was hoping she was _lying_.

_Are you sure it’s mine?_

Of all the stupid things he could have said, and he’d managed to pick the worst one yet. Her slap still rang in his ears — well deserved, if he was being honest with himself. Kory had immediately started to cry, cradling her hand to her chest like a murder weapon she didn’t know what to do with.

He’d wanted to explain himself to her, to tell her he didn’t mean it, not that way, but the damage had already been done and it was as if his mouth had stopped functioning, language evading him entirely, betraying him in his time of need. There’d been a wretched sob that had followed, escaping Kory’s parted lips — one that would forever haunt him — and then an abrupt slamming of doors with the lock clicking in place after she’d stormed away.

Even though it would consume him all day, Dick had figured it wise to probably let her cool off. Just in case he managed to make matters worse somehow.

"So, let me get this straight," Roy began, "Kory, aka _the_ hottest babe on the team, tells you she's having _your_ baby, and you... _ask her if it's yours_?!"

Wally hissed through a grimace. "Oh man, that's pretty stupid."

This time, Victor appeared to nod in agreement with the speedster's callous observation.

"I know I screwed up, guys. I don't need you to remind me…," Dick groaned, running his hands through his hair.

"Did you think she was like...cheating on you or something? Kory doesn't seem the type…" It was Gar who'd spoken up, poking at the fire with a nearby stick.

"What? Of course not! I wasn't...That's not how I meant it. I know how it sounds, but...I didn't think she wanted to have a kid with _me_ ," Dick explained. "I'm not exactly what you'd call _dad_ material."

"What do you mean? You're _the_ dad of this group," argued Roy. "The way you boss us all around and watch out for our well-being and shit."

"Yeah, I mean you've already pretty much mastered the art of _dad_ jokes and _dad_ speeches, and you’ve also forced us to eat gluten-free pizza at least once a week," Wally added with a mischevious snicker.

Victor opened up a bag of marshmallows and stuck a soft, gooey treat on the end of a wooden stick. "I'm just glad you didn't tell her you didn't _want_ the kid because it'll be half Tamaranean."

Dick looked offended at this. "No way. That's not it at all. I...love Kory. I love everything about her, including her heritage. If anything, I can't believe that she's picked someone like _me_ to share that with…"

"Woah, and here I thought _I_ was the self-loathing one in the group," Gar said nonchalantly.

"What's not to love?” Roy pressed. “You're the _Prince of Gotham_. Richard Grayson, son of multi-billionaire Bruce Wayne. Nightwing, leader of the Titans. I think Kory struck _gold_ here," said Roy. "Pass me a marshmallow."

“You guys do realize she’s a _princess_ , right?” Wally added, but nobody seemed to care.

"Yeah, but none of that means I'll know _how_ to be a father. In case you guys forgot, I haven't exactly had the healthiest examples of fatherhood myself…"

Victor threw the whole bag at Roy. A few marshmallows hit the ground before he caught it in his arms. The archer picked up the nearest one from the floor, wiped it along his flannel coat, and poked it through with a branch.

"Remember when I had Lian?" Roy asked, watching the white flesh of the marshmallow burn by the open flame. "Remember how freaked out I was? How I didn't think I'd raise her right? That she'd grow up to resent me?"

"Roy, what are you-"

"Remember what you told me?" He swung his head in Dick's direction, searching his friend's face for a flicker of memory, something a lot like sympathy and gratefulness shining in his eyes. When Dick’s features remained unfocused, Roy shook his head in disappointment. "You told me that I'd get through it. That there was no way that kid would hate me when I was already freaking out about how I'd take care of her."

The camp went quiet when Roy spoke, all the boys fixated by the central fire, listening intently.

Roy chuckled softly, the stubble of his jaw prominent in his laugh lines. "You told me I was already a good father because I loved her and I hadn’t even met her yet. Basically, what I'm trying to say right now is, _right back at you, man_."

Wally nodded his head. "In all seriousness, I can't think of any two people who'd make better parents than you and Kory. Yeah, you'll be just fine."

"And if you're ever stuck, you've always got us," Victor tacked on for good measure.

* * *

They walked him back to the cabin the next morning, an entire entourage of the people he considered brothers. _Family_. Maybe not by blood, but that had never mattered to Dick Grayson.

It was ridiculous how their very presence, the way they crowded around him, armed with the knowledge that he needed their help, comforted and cushioned him somehow. It made facing his greatest fears just a little bit easier. Like he could take on just about anything. Including fatherhood with a half alien baby, and a girlfriend who had every right to kick his ass.

Donna was the one who opened the door first, and she immediately fixated an icy glare in the direction of the shamefaced boy wonder. He paused a few feet away, tension straining his shoulders upon realizing that Kory had not spared the details from her own friends. And how could he blame her? Last night, he needed the support, too. Even if, at the end of the day, the two of them would have to be the ones to sort it out.

Lian was napping in Donna’s strong arms, head resting on the Amazonian's shoulder and her thumb in her mouth. Roy stepped forward, shielding Dick from what was undoubtedly about to become a serious tongue lashing.

"Easy now, there's children about, babe." Roy clucked his tongue in warning at Donna before swooping in to relieve her of his sleepy daughter. Lian migrated happily into her dad's embrace, the shift entirely natural in her dreamy state.

"Don't you _dare_ go about defending him on this one," Donna seethed, but Roy's easy grin didn't dissipate at her terse tone.

"How many times have I done or said dumb shit and _you_ still stuck around? Huh? Give them some space, let 'em hash it out." He winked and tugged her away from where she stood guard at the cabin doors. Donna didn't have anything to add to that and, with one last glare thrown at the shame-faced, guilty boy wonder, she walked away, shaking her head and grumbling some choice insults under her breath.

Raven, Cassie, and Rose appeared on the porch next, ready to relieve the boys of some of the camping gear they were bringing back inside.

"Sorry you're in the doghouse, Grayson. But hey, it could be worse." Cassie picked up the cooler that Wally was struggling with, making it look as easy as lifting a spoon much to the detriment of the speedster’s ego.

"It could?"

She shrugged, wearing a dimpled smile. "She could have lasered out your heart and stomped on it, for starters."

Richard paled and Victor clapped him on the back reassuringly. "You got this, man. We knew this was coming. Just stick to the plan."

"Plan? What plan?" Raven folded her arms over her chest, leaning against the doorframe with an unreadable expression. "It's just a _baby_ , Grayson. What's the big deal?"

Gar gave Dick an apologetic look while his back was to the empath. "Babies are kind of a big deal, Rae…," he told her, struggling with the tent bag in his arms.

She rolled her eyes and investigated her nail beds.

Rose, however, decided to pick up Raven’s slack. "They're not. Men are just weird about fatherhood. It's not like you have to carry a tiny person around with you for nine months, grow fat and ugly, and then experience squeezing something equivalent to a watermelon from your _peehole_ as punishment for having sex."

"Always count on Rose Wilson for the crude commentary. Mind giving us a hand while you berate us?" Wally scoffed.

"Can I just see Kory, please?" Dick whined, fidgeting on the spot in discomfort.

Raven sighed and nodded her head in the direction of her bedroom. "Try not to make things worse, boy _blunder_."

Dick thanked her under his breath and pushed past the ragtag crew of women currently eyeballing him, wondering if they’d attack when he got close enough. Rose gave him a bit of a spook, and when Richard jolted, she laughed aloud. “What an easy mark, just like the rest of his brothers.”

"You good?" Gar asked Raven in a low voice, steadying her shoulders and giving her a concerned onceover.

She furrowed her brows. "Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

His lips formed a thin line, unconvinced by her performance. "You look...paler than usual. And it's not like you to _not_ stand up for Kory."

She shrugged him off and scowled. "It's just a baby, for Azar's sake. I don't get the fuss or why I have to be so damn concerned about it!"

Before Gar could probe her further — especially given her strange outburst — Raven had already turned on her heel, storming off into the kitchen angrily.

"Woah...what's up with _her_?" Wally asked, staring after the empath with a bewildered look. “You say something stupid again, Gar?”

Rose answered before the shapeshifter could. "Not sure what’s got her leotard in a twist. She was weird all night. I thought maybe Beastie here just wasn't giving her the good old vitamin D, but he's too much of a _horndog_ for that."

Gar turned his head to give Rose an unamused stare. "I'll go check on her, thanks," he told them, voice flat and cool.

When he entered the double doors of the kitchen, Gar found Raven staring at the kettle on the stovetop, hands clutching the edges of the counter while leaning forward, mouth curled into an almost snarl. The water hadn't started boiling yet, and she was impervious to his presence, glaring daggers at the ceramic instead.

"Hey." He waved at her before nervously tucking his hands into the pockets of his cargo shorts. Raven ignored him. "Making tea?"

"Gar, _please_ ," Raven spoke through gritted teeth, eyes squeezing shut like she was battling an intense headache. "I'm _not_ in the mood."

"Have you eaten anything? I was gonna make some breakfast. I can whip you up something if you're hungry." He started going through the fridge, pulling out a few of the necessary ingredients for what was likely to be an omelette and pancakes.

Raven sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "I know what you're trying to do…"

"What do you mean? I’m just trying to fix my girlfriend some grub. Isn’t the saying, good food is the way to the heart?" Gar answered rather cheekily.

Raven turned her attention to his back, just as the kettle started steaming. His muscle-shirt was pocked with holes and tears, not to mention, was several sizes too big on his lean frame. Gar may as well have been topless.

"Surely you gotta have worked up an appetite after _last night_." He turned around and waggled his eyebrows at her suggestively, a knowing smirk beaming on his youthful face, pronouncing his dimples.

Raven couldn't help it, the way the memory came back to her, of his feverish, wet skin pressed up against hers in the tiny shower stall. How he'd bitten down on her bottom lip as she'd whimpered against his mouth, grabbing fistfuls of his hair and throwing her head back against the wall.

Her cheeks grew warm recalling how good it had felt, and something stirred in her lower abdomen, clenching in a painful ache. All her inappropriate thoughts at the time came back to taunt her, reminding her of how primal her urges had been. How she’d clenched her legs around his waist so tight while he came, just so that she wouldn’t have missed a single _drop_. Raven averted her gaze, thinking he might be able to read her mind and find her being _gross_.

Placing the carton of eggs, milk, and green pepper onto the counter, Gar closed the distance between them. Carefully, he lifted her chin up with his fingers until she was looking at him with watery eyes. "Talk to me, Rae. Let me help." His voice was not unkind, laced with sincerity and an affection she was still getting used to.

Raven couldn't help it, the way the shame welled up in her like acid, what she was doing to him, how he didn't deserve any of it. How she didn't deserve _him_.

The nauseating guilt bubbled up from the pits of her empty stomach, heaving with the suppressed emotions she'd tried to bury long ago. She pulled away from him because she couldn't handle looking into the depths of his searching eyes, with all their concern for her, conveying, with deadly precision, every way in which she was breaking his heart. The changeling was always painfully easy to read, how he always managed to wear his heart on his sleeve around her. Only showing his true side, his true feelings, when he was alone with Raven. 

"I...I _can't_ …," she croaked, voice shaking.

Gar held her by the wrists, pulling her into him and holding her there against the warmth of his chest. " _Anything_ ,” he spoke with confidence, voice reverberating against her ear through the muscles of his torso. “We can handle _anything_ , Rae. There's nothing you could do or say that'd make me leave."

She clutched at the thin material of his shirt, balling it up into her fists, and shook against him, dry sobs wracking her body. The heaving continued but there was nothing left to expel; no tears, no food, just emptiness. Gar rubbed her back in soothing circles with his palms, letting her ride out the panic attack as memories she thought long buried resurfaced in her psyche, shiny and new.

Gar pulled back a little, and smoothed away a few fine strands of hair from her face, staring at her like she was the centre of his universe, something both precious and delicate, worthy of his love. Like she was the sun and the stars themselves. 

"Look at me, Rae."

And she did. The calm, serene smile on his face helped to calm her down — sun rays through storm clouds. The glassy warmth in the faint green of his eyes, flecked with gold, felt familiar and safe. "I'm not going anywhere. We'll ride this out together. As long as it takes."

Raven swallowed at the lump lodged in her throat, still hiccupping. Her eyes watered, not from crying tears, but rather from the effect that the havoc and sheer force of the attack had had on her entire body. "I'm...I'm sorry, Gar…You deserve _more_ than what I can give you…What I can _ever_ give you..."

"Hey, none of that now. I deserve _you_."

"You don't get it...I...I can't…"

"Can't what?"

She shook her head, the embarrassment, the _failure_ , rendering her speech useless. Raven gathered her bearings as Gar hushed her, still soothing with his touch and whispers, like she was but a flightless bird panicking in his hands. His skin and clothes smelled like campfire smoke and sweat, not an entirely unpleasant combination.

"It happened...a long time ago. The baby...It was barely more than the size of a coin...I couldn't save it…" Raven stared down at the ground, at the grooves and tiles, feeling like she was confessing to a heinous crime and shrinking right before his eyes. This was something that would ruin her image as a hero, taint Gar’s love and respect for her forever, and the perpetual fear of what losing him would do to her.

She couldn't stomach watching the realization dawn on his unsuspecting features, growing with the width of his eyes. The sobs were back now, all the sadness and loss returning to empty her out, like she was just a bag of air to be picked up by a torrential wind and flung away.

"Shit, Rae...I'm so sorry." He immediately clutched her to his chest, kissing the top of her head and stroking her hair. Somewhere in the background, the tea kettle whistled angrily and in alarm. Gar continued to hold Raven like that, swaying gently on the spot, the only anchor keeping her tethered to the moment. He stayed like that with her for as long as it took, Gar whispering sweet nothings into her ear, kissing her face, her ears, her temples. "I'm so, so sorry, baby…"

Minutes, hours, she wasn't sure how much time had elapsed with them clinging to one another fiercely. Eventually, he'd pried away from her long enough to have gotten them each a steaming mug of tea, and helped her take a seat next to him at the kitchen table. When she was ready, and the dry sobs had subsided at long last, Raven gazed into the surface of the tea in her hands, and worked up the courage to explain herself.

With only his knee bouncing up and down nervously, making the longest strands of his hair shake along with it, Gar stared down at the floor, jaw clenched, and just... _listened_.

She told him that she'd only been seventeen at the time. That she didn't know any better. Only how she’d been so desperate to make a connection with an ill-suited boyfriend back then (to which he notably scoffed and rolled his eyes), but at the end of the day, the father of her unborn child didn't matter. He was forever out of the picture, and she’d been glad of it. At this, Gar started chewing on his thumbnail, a nervous habit when he was incredibly stressed out and trying to contain it all. Raven placed a reassuring hand on his knee to keep him with her.

After all, it wasn't his fault. She hadn't told _anyone_ , not Starfire, Cyborg, or even Robin. She hadn't wanted to burden the team until she'd made a final decision on what she was going to do about her condition, but before she could, it seemed that nature had a plan all of its own.

Gar shook his head fervently. "Damn it, you shouldn't have had to go through that alone, Rae. I-... _we_ should have been there for you."

"Stop it. You can't possibly blame yourself for not knowing…"

Despite her best efforts, Raven could tell that he would blame himself anyways. It was simply how Gar worked; always taking everyone's burdens unto himself. Even when there’d been nothing he could have done.

Gar then came to his feet all of a sudden, full of an energy he didn't know what to do with. Pushing back his unruly hair from his face, he paced in front of her, muttering under his breath indiscernible things. Finally, he turned to face Raven, and before she could open her mouth to question his odd behaviour, he’d dropped to his knees, on the ground before her, taking both of her hands between his own and staring up into her face, searching the way a cartographer searched the night skies.

For a moment — albeit a _brief_ one — she’d gone frozen thinking maybe he’d pull out an expensive ring from his pockets and send her into a state of utter shock and disbelief.

"It doesn't matter to me,” he started, clutching her hands tightly. “I'll do whatever you want. If you want a baby, I'll give you one. If you don't, I don't care, I'll grow old with you anyways. And if we can't have a kid biologically and you really, _really_ want one, we can always adopt." He kissed each of her knuckles and held her fingers to his chest, right over his thrumming heart. "I want _you_. It's really that simple for me, Rae."

Raven looked down at him, at this man she'd come to need more than she could ever care to admit, like she'd found a piece of her soul that'd been missing and she'd never even realized it until the moment they’d connected. Not having him in her life would be like wandering through the rest of her days without half of her body. Her heart swelled with sudden, strong emotion and she leaned down, taking his face between her hands and bringing him closer to her. Their noses brushed, and then their lips, tender and soft, her fingers lost in the waves of the silken hair by his ears, her own hair falling forward like a violet curtain.

He _belonged_ to her. They belonged _together_. The rest of the world be damned…

* * *

Dick found Kory sitting with her back to him, a bag of cheetos and a tub of mayonnaise laying beside her on the bed while the television droned on in the background. She didn’t bother glancing up at him, her normally glowing eyes devoid of their usual light, blank and flat while she stared at the screen with minimal interest. In a mechanical fashion, she dipped a cheeto into the jar of mayo and ate it, pointedly ignoring him even as he took a seat on the other side of the bed, the mattress shifting with his added weight.

Maybe Cassie was right; maybe Dick ought to be grateful that the worst Kory was doing was giving him the cold shoulder, when she could have easily done _much_ worse. Which also meant that Roy and Victor had been correct in assuming he still had a chance to save things between them.

“Cravings already kicking in?” he asked with a forced smile, pointing at her current choice of snacks.

“No.” Her answer was firm and uninterested, but all Dick could think was at least she was speaking to him.

“Kory, I…” Dick stared at the space between them on the bed, where his hand lay apart from hers. “I’m an idiot,” he finally choked out with a heavy laden sigh. The words had been stuck in the back of his throat like razors. “I didn’t mean what I said. I know...I know the kid is _mine_ , it just came out all wrong, my head was all over the place and I was caught off guard, but I swear...I’m just... _nervous_.”

His fingers dug into the sheets as he tried to stop them from shaking. “I don’t wanna screw this up. My childhood was far from the best thing, and I don’t...how do I raise them right? How do I give them everything I didn’t have?” His voice trembled and his vision blurred, his heartbeat in his ears, thumping harder and harder. “I’m not scared of having a baby with you, Kory. In fact, there’s no one else I’d want to share this with _more_. I’m scared of being a _bad father_ , and you don’t deserve that, you don’t, and neither does the baby. I just don’t want to let either of you down, and knowing I already have, it’s not exactly promising for things to come.”

“Richard…,” Kory called out his name, softly like she always did. She’d breached the distance between them, closing the chasm in a single motion. Tears he didn’t know about slid down his cheeks and she wiped them away gently with the pad of her thumb, the touch of fire itself, only it didn’t hurt. With her, it never hurt. “I’m scared too,” she weeped openly, and when he looked up at her, he saw the unmistakable tears pooling in her effervescent eyes. Only, she was beaming at him through them, face flushed and rounded from the smile, leading the tears around her cheekbones.

Kory rested her forehead against his and exhaled softly, gently stroking the side of his jaw. They both cried together, sobs wracking their bodies, but not of sadness. Not quite of joy, either. But of a comfort they found in one another, of facing an uncertain future _together_. The similarities of their souls, bound together by the fragile life growing inside of Kory’s womb even now. He held onto her shoulders, and she held onto his, and before they knew it, they were grinning through their tears, smiling so hard it hurt.

“We’re going to have a _baby_ ,” Dick said through the sniffles, like he was having a hard time even believing it. Slowly, with shaking hands, he reached for her belly, still flat and inconspicuous for now, and greeted his unborn daughter for the very first time with a warm touch.

“Yeah, we are,” Kory answered, wrapping her own hands over top his. They raised their eyes to one another, cobalt blue meeting glowing, pulsing jade, and shared a secret, joyful laugh before Dick reached up to plant his smiling mouth onto hers. He then pushed Kory back onto the bed, knocking the cheetos and jar of mayo to the floor in a forgotten mess...

* * *

**_~FIN_ **


End file.
